Meghan Markle has been spotted for the first time following the termination of her Spotify deal.
On Thursday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s production company Archewell Audio and Spotify released a joint statement announcing they had “mutually agreed to part ways.”
A day later, Meghan, 41, was photographed near her California home on a phone call, marking the first time she had been seen since the deal was terminated.
Spotify was the home of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast, which debuted as the number-one podcast in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada on Spotify’s international charts during its release in August.
The series spawned 12 episodes during its first season and included appearances by Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, and Paris Hilton, to name a few. The show won a 2022 People’s Choice Award and was an honoree during the 48th Annual Gracie Awards.
Its ending comes amid a June 5 announcement from Spotify that stated that the company was cutting approximately 200 employees, 2% of Spotify’s workforce, as they “recently embarked on the next phase of our podcast strategy.” A source close to the situation previously told there’s no connection between the recent layoffs and Spotify parting ways with Meghan and Prince Harry.
During the final episode, Meghan expressed that the podcast was an outlet that made her “feel seen.”
“I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but what’s come out of it for me has been illuminating. And also ironic. Because while this format is only audio and each week I use my voice, you can hear my thoughts without any visual, I feel seen,” she said.
Added Meghan: “I had never considered that in using my voice, that I would feel seen. But I do. And so much of the feedback throughout the season from women is that they feel seen as well. As we heard today, that men see our experience differently now, too. They see us. They see us more clearly.”
After the news of Meghan and Harry parting ways with Spotify was made public, Spotify executive Bill Simmons gave his reaction.
Referring to the couple as “f—ing grifters” on Friday’s edition of The Bills Simmons Podcast, he stated, “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Megan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. … That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.”